Shor language

Shor
Шор тили šor tili, Тадар тили tadar tili
Spoken in	Russia
Region	Kemerovo
Ethnicity	Shors
Native speakers	9,800  (date missing)
Language family	Turkic Siberian Shor
Writing system	Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cjs

The Shor language (Шор тили) is a Turkic language spoken by about 10,000 people in the Kemerovo Province in south-central Siberia. In the history of the Turkic states and China, Shors played an important role, mostly connected with their offshoot Shatuo. Presently, not all ethnic Shors speak Shor, and the language suffered a decline from the late 1930s to the early 1990s. However, the dissolution of the Soviet Union brought about the Shor lingual revival. The language is now being taught at the Novokuznetsk branch of the Kemerovo State University.

Shor language was not initially included in ISO 639, an international standard that lists short codes for language names, until it was included as cjs in the recent edition ISO 639-3.

Like its neighbor languages, the language has borrowed a great number of roots from the Mongolian language, as well as words from the Russian language. The two main dialects are Mrasu and Kondoma, named after the districts where they are spoken. Differences between these dialects are small.

It is written with a modified version of Cyrillic, which was introduced by Christian missionaries in the middle of the 19th century.

To highlight the endangered status of the language, Gennady Kostochakov recently published a book of poems in Shor entitled, "I am the Last Shor Poet."

Morphology and syntax

Pronouns

Shor has seven personal pronouns:

Personal pronouns

Singular		Plural
Shor (transliteration)	English	Shor (transliteration)	English
мен (men)	I	пис (pis)	we
сен (sen)	you (singular)	силер/слер (siler/sler)	you (plural, formal)
ол (ol)	he/she/it	ылар/лар, олар/алар (ılar/lar, olor/alar)	they (animate?)
		пылар/плар (pılar/plar)	they (inanimate?)

Writing System

Missionary Alphabet

The first book written in the Shor language was published in 1885. It used the Russian alphabet (excluding Ё ё, Ф ф, Щ щ, and Ѣ ѣ) with additional letters Ј ј, Ҥ ҥ, Ӧ ӧ, and Ӱ ӱ. In 1927 it was changed to use the Russian alphabet (excluding Ё ё and ъ) with additional letters Ј ј, Ҥ ҥ, Ӧ ӧ, and Ӱ ӱ and made official.

Latin Alphabet

A Latin alphabet for the Shor language was introduced in 1930: A a, B в, C c, D d, Ə ə, F f, G g, Ƣ ƣ, I i, J j, K k, Q q, M m, N n, N̡ n̡, O o, Ө ө, P p, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, Ş ş, Z z, Ƶ ƶ, L l, Ь ь, Y y, Į į.

The order of the letters was later changed to correspond with alphabets for other languages in the Soviet Union, the letter Ә ә was replaced with E e, and the letter Į į was dropped.

Modern Alphabet

In 1938 the Latin alphabet was replaced with a Cyrillic one. It used the Russian alphabet with additional letters Ӧ ӧ, Ӱ ӱ, and Нъ нъ. After reforms in 1980 it reached its present form: А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Ғ ғ, Д д, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Қ қ, Л л, М м, Н н, Ң ң, О о, Ӧ ӧ, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ӱ ӱ, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я.

Comparison of Shor Alphabets

Cyrillic		Latin	Cyrillic
1885	1927-1930	1930-1938	1938-1980	1980–present
А а	A a	A a	А а	А а
Б б	Б б	B в	Б б	Б б
В в	В в	V v	В в	В в
Г г	Г г	G g	Г г	Г г
Г г	Г г	Ƣ ƣ	Г г	Ғ ғ
Д д	Д д	D d	Д д	Д д
Е е	Е е		Е е	Е е
				Ё ё
Ж ж	Ж ж	Ƶ ƶ	Ж ж	Ж ж
З з	З з	Z z	З з	З з
И и, I i, Ѵ ѵ	И и	I i, Į į	И и	И и
Й й	Й й	J j	Й й	Й й
К к	К к	K k	К к	К к
К к	К к	Q q	К к	Қ қ
Л л	Л л	L l	Л л	Л л
М м	М м	M m	М м	М м
Н н	Н н	N n	Н н	Н н
Ҥ ҥ	Ҥ ҥ	N̡ n̡	Нъ нъ	Ң ң
О о	О о	О о	О о	О о
Ӧ ӧ	Ө ө	Ө ө	Ӧ ӧ	Ӧ ӧ
П п	П п	P p	П п	П п
Р р	Р р	R r	Р р	Р р
С с	С с	S s	C c	C c
Т т	Т т	T t	Т т	Т т
У у	У у	U u	У у	У у
Ӱ ӱ	Ӱ ӱ	Y y	Ӱ ӱ	Ӱ ӱ
Ѳ ѳ	Ф ф	F f	Ф ф	Ф ф
Х х	Х х		Х х	Х х
Ц ц	Ц ц		Ц ц	Ц ц
Ч ч, J j	Ч ч	C c	Ч ч	Ч ч
Ш ш	Ш ш	Ş ş	Ш ш	Ш ш
	Щ щ		Щ щ	Щ щ
ъ			ъ	ъ
Ы ы	Ы ы	Ь ь	Ы ы	Ы ы
ь	ь		ь	ь
Э э	Э э	Ə ə, Е е	Э э	Э э
Ю ю	Ю ю		Ю ю	Ю ю
Я я	Я я		Я я	Я я

References

• Ethnologue report for Shor language
• Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia: The Shor language
• The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire: The Shors
• The Shor alphabet